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Combined benefit: care allowance plus a care service

Enter the care service’s monthly bill: the calculator shows the share of the services budget used and the allowance paid alongside it.

Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate

per month, excluding relief amount

at most €598.80

Care allowance left

€358.92

59.9 % of €599

40 %
60 %
Care service
Everyday help
unused
Care service via the fund€600
Everyday help via the fund€0
Allowance paid to you€358.92
Step-by-step calculation
  1. Grade 3 services budget: €1,497; used €600 = 40.1 %.
  2. Care allowance €599 × 59.9 % = €358.92 (section 38).
  3. Everyday help paid through the conversion claim is capped at 40 % of the services budget and counts as services in kind (section 45a(4)).
  4. You are bound to the split for 6 months (section 38).

Estimate using the 2026 amounts in Book XI of the Social Code. Only the decision letter from your Pflegekasse is binding. How we calculate

If relatives care for someone at home and a registered care service also visits, the German long-term care fund pays the combined benefit (Kombinationsleistung) under section 38 of Book XI of the Social Code. The fund pays the service’s bill up to the services limit for the grade and transfers a pro-rata care allowance alongside it. The allowance falls by exactly the percentage of the services budget used. If the service uses half the budget, half the allowance remains: €173.50 at grade 2, €299.50 at grade 3, €400.00 at grade 4 and €495.00 at grade 5. Everyday help paid from the services budget through the conversion claim counts like services. At grade 3 with €900 for the service and €200 for everyday help, 73.5 % is used and €158.85 remains. The chosen split binds for six months, and the relief amount never reduces the allowance.

The combination for each grade

Pro-rata allowance under section 38 SGB XI.
Care gradeServices up toFull allowanceService uses half: allowanceService uses three quarters: allowance
2€796€347€173.50€86.75
3€1,497€599€299.50€149.75
4€1,859€800€400.00€200.00
5€2,299€990€495.00€247.50

The rule is simple but not intuitive: the percentage counts, not the euro amount. A €400 care service bill costs more than half the allowance at grade 2 but only about a sixth at grade 5, because the services budget there is almost three times larger (section 38 SGB XI).

If the bill exceeds the services budget, the family pays the rest and no allowance is left. Anyone regularly above the limit should check whether some visits can be billed as supervision to the relief amount. For everyday help there is also the conversion claim, which also reduces the allowance.

A practical tip: ask the care service for a cost estimate for a typical month and enter it here before signing the contract. The family then sees in advance how much allowance remains and can arrange visits so the budget is not exceeded.

Questions families ask

Does the allowance change every month with the combined benefit?

Yes. The fund settles each month against the care service’s actual bill and pays the rest as allowance, usually afterwards. A month with more visits means less allowance. The six-month commitment applies to the basic choice, not to every euro, which matters for families budgeting from abroad.

Which is better: allowance only or the combined benefit?

A care service puts more money into care, because the services budget is much larger than the allowance. If the family mainly wants cash for the relative who cares, every visit reduces it. Many use the service for what relatives cannot manage, such as morning personal care, and keep the rest as allowance.

Do the relief amount and day care count towards the combination?

No. The relief amount and day or night care have their own budgets and do not reduce the allowance. Only the care service’s services and the conversion claim for everyday help count. Supervision visits by the service may therefore be better billed to the relief amount.

Continue with

Care allowance

2026 table, payment, part months, hospital stays, travel abroad, tax and passing it on to relatives.

Home care services

The budget for a home care service: up to €2,299 a month, billed directly, with part of the allowance for what is left.

Conversion claim

Up to 40 % of the services budget for recognised everyday help, without prior application, on top of the relief amount but at the cost of the allowance.

Relief amount

€131 a month at every care grade: what it covers, how refunds work and how long unused money lasts.

Care grade 3

€599 allowance or €1,497 in care services: what German care grade 3 brings.

Home advice visit

Compulsory with the care allowance from grade 2, once every six months, free of charge, every second visit by video until 31 March 2027.

Laws and data

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Publisher of German long-term care calculators: care grade, Pflegekasse benefits, care home costs

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Amounts 2026, read on